Slam.

  Frawn slammed open the doors of the throne room for the Black Goblin clans citadel, rushing in. Sallow and Sable looked towards the Red Goblin, confused, while Frawn rushed over to them, exhausted and breathing heavily. “We have a problem… A big problem.”

  “A problem? What problem?” Sallow asked, turning towards Frawn, who caught his breath for a moment, before exhaling heavily and looking at the Goblin Overlord. “The White King is leading a military force towards the Black Goblin clan.”

  The two goblins fell silent, before Sable put on a sour expression for a second. “...What?”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I wouldn’t joke about something like this, your Majesty.” Frawn looked at Sallow with a nervous, panicked expression – cold sweat forming on his face. Sallow fell silent again, looking away and down, sliding into his thoughts. Sable exhaled, looking away as well. “That’s not good… We were planning to hit the White King and the White Goblin clan with a sneak attack to catch them off guard, but who would have guessed that he would be the first one to lead an army to fight…”

  She looked towards Sallow. “So, what do we do?”

  Sallow remained silent. He didn’t reply nor react in any way to the question asked, before exhaling and looking back at the two goblins. “...We prepare for an invasion.”

  Without saying anything, Sable and Frawn nodded.

  Sallow looked down at the table in front of him and Sable, where the map of the five goblin clan territories was displayed on rough paper, sketched out with coal. “Rally as many healthy and battle ready soldiers as you can. We must ensure that the Black Goblin clan does not fall to the White King.”

  The other two nodded.

  Frawn turned around and immediately ran off while Sable turned to some guards present in the throne room. “You heard his Grace. Get a move on, rally up our forces! As many as you can!”

  “Sire!”

  As the guards rushed off, Sallow sharpened his gaze on the map, sliding into his thoughts once more. “My Lord… you must hurry back.”

  Meanwhile…

  Jack rushed forward, grabbing the large direwolf by its neck and slamming it into the ground, snapping its neck in an instant — a sinister grin spread across his face. Araneida applauded her master with her front legs, as Jack got back up to his feet and brushed off the dust on him, as well as cleaning off the blood that had splattered onto his face. “The strength I’ve gained after my Rank Evolution is incredible. I feel faster, stronger and sturdier. It feels like I’ve been reborn completely anew.”

  Jack turned towards Araneida. “Go on, have at it.” The spider squeaked excitedly, before skittering up to the dead direwolf body and sinking her large fangs into its body. While the arachnid was devouring the direwolf, Jack turned away and opened his status menu.

  [ STATUS ]

  Jack Alfred Gragbone

  Gender: Male

  Title: Goblin Slayer

  Level: 1 (2)

  Rank: G

  Class: Tamer

  Stat Points: 0

  Health: 700 / [0]

  Magical Energy: 2,000 / [0]

  Strength: 550 / [0]

  Defence: 500 / [0]

  Agility: 550 / [0]

  Skills;

  [Interpreter]; Common Skill

  [War General]; Great Skill

  [Combat Experience]; Unique Skill

  [Battle Hungry]; Unique Skill

  [Spider Venom]; Unique Skill

  [Leaders Transformation]; Unique Skill

  [Taming]; Class Skill

  [Animal Body]; Class Skill

  [ STATUS ]

  “After going through my Rank Evolution, I have not been able to gain any more levels, no matter how many monsters me and Araneida hunt down and slaughter. It seems like that with higher ranks, I will most certainly require more powerful monsters in order to level up.” He exhaled, looking down at his skills and focusing his eyes on the ‘War General’ skill.

  [ INFORMATION ]

  War General - Great Skill (3/3)

  Activation cost: 250 Magical Energy

  Fueled by your experience as a military combatant, you are able to command and empower many individuals under you. Upon activation, the skill boosts the morale, stats and magical energy of everyone who recognises you as the ‘Leader’ by 50%.

  Limitation; The skill has 3 charges. After using all 3 charges, the skill will enter a cooldown period of 24 hours.

  [ INFORMATION ]

  “The skill I was gifted upon succeeding in my Rank Evolution seems very optimised for my role as a ‘Tamer’. It makes me wonder, whether the skills that I gain outside of the Unique shared skills from taming, are specifically curated and matched to me and my abilities…” Jack crossed his arms, exhaling and closing the two menu windows in front of him, before looking down at his right palm, gazing at it emptily for a bit.

  For a moment — he remembered the moment he was thrown into the labyrinth after being summoned to this world. Something about that moment had left a stain on his soul. A stab wound in his heart.

  …It was an aching feeling that previously he was able to ignore, as it was subtle, but now? It was so strong that it was hard to ignore it. It was as if his body was burning with the feeling of hatred.

  Shaking his head, he squeezed his hand into a tight fist, before taking in a deep breath and letting out a heavy exhale. “I shouldn’t focus on that. I have to first focus on getting out of here, then I will worry about that incident.”

  Turning over to look at Araneida, he was slightly taken back upon seeing her done with her meal, gently munching on the bones that remained from the direwolf. He exhaled again, putting on a gentle smile on his face as he looked at his arachnid companion. “Come on, let’s head back to the Black Goblin clan for today. We have to announce the news of my Rank Evolution to Sallow after all.” The spider nodded and happily skittered after Jack, sticking closely to his side, as the two of them made their way down a rocky path – uneven and jagged, as you’d expect a natural stone floor of a cave to look.

  Black Goblin clan camp border.Outskirts.

  The White King in front of his army forces, arms crossed and an intimidating presence looming over him – his gaze fixated on the Black Goblin clan camp located in front of him.

  On top of the walls, Black, Red and Green goblin warriors were rushing all over the place – preparing or at least, so it seemed to look like from afar. The White Goblin Witch flew down in front of the White King, stepping off from a small white bird that she had conjured up with magic. “How does it look April?” The White King asked, looking down at the Taboo Witch.

  “It’s hard to tell.”The witch turned to look at the Black Goblin clans camp's large gates, narrowing her gaze under the veil in front of her face. “They seem to have evacuated all of the normal citizens all the while rallying up their own forces. From above, I managed to spot forces of all three clans gathering. However, there is no sign of the other Kings or a human and a spider. My best guess is that they all are inside the Citadel.”

  April looked at the White King, who clicked his tongue and sighed.“Tch— how disappointing… They don’t have enough dignity and self respect to come out and lead their armies into battle, so they chose to hide in safety while sending their soldiers to fight? How despicable.”The White King let out a heavy sigh, resting his hands onto his hips.

  “Alright,” He looked back at the army behind him. “On my signal, the archers fire their arrows and then the mages set them ablaze so that we can burn down that wall. Afterwards we’ll…”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Rumble, shake…

  Tremble…

  The entire ground shook violently, cutting the White King off as well as startling the troops he led. April, Baal, Kalos and Bethra all looked around confused, while the White King narrowed his sharp gaze back onto the Black Goblin clan's camp.

  The front gates opened, a heavy thud echoing through the air.

  Out of it, stepped four silhouettes. First was Greth, dressed in light plate and heavy leather armour, warming up her right arm while carrying a large sword on her back. Her hair was tied back and her eyes sharp and serious.

  Next to her moved Frawn, wearing a more battle ready attire — which clung to his body like a tight body suit, with a black coat over it that gently waved as he walked. His face was covered by a strange mask, which had a pair of shining red eyes. Resting on his right shoulder, he carried the weapon he had made and been testing for the past week, only now, it was the ‘perfected’ version of it.

  A bit further away from Frawn was Sable, who had entered her ‘true form’ while fixing a pair of gauntlets made by Frawn onto her fists, a battle hungry grin spread across her face.

  Lastly, in front of them all with a powerful, intimidating presence, was a towering, almost black figure. Every single one of his steps that he took sent a wave of energy towards the White Goblin forces, which made everyone but the White King shudder. “Wh-What is this presence…? That power I feel leaking off from that guy… It’s insane.” April shed a cold sweat while Baal placed his hands on the sword on his back. “...Your Lordship?”

  The White King remained silent, before smiling lightly. “...I take back what I said. Perhaps this will be interesting.” He then moved forward, gesturing to his commanders to follow him while gesturing to the main troops to stay behind.

  The two sides moved towards one another, before stopping – a fifteen meter distance between the two groups. Silence.

  It was a pressuring, intense silence.Nothing other than sharp and judgemental gazes were exchanged. It was as if the whole world had slowed down in this immense, intense moment. Then, the White King broke the silence, stepping forward a bit more, his gaze fixated on Sallow.

  “You must be the Grey King, correct?”Sallow nodded silently, stepping forward a bit more as well. The White King grinned, before letting out a small chuckle under his breath and sharpening his gaze onto Sallow, before crossing his arms. “...Quite the name you’ve managed to build up for yourself in such a short time. I still remember the day when your clan was struck by the Green Goblin clan and lost a lot of its territory and power.”He narrowed his eyes. “...When you lost dignity as a leader.”

  Sallow remained silent, before glaring at the White King. “If you’re trying to mock me, that I have to say — it goes against everything that you are said to be.” The White King laughed. “Right… I suppose it is a bit uncharacteristic of me to mock someone… especially a fellow ruler.” He sighed then, before resting his hands onto his hips once more.

  “Alright, I’ll start. We can resolve this peacefully — just promise me that neither you or any of the other clan leaders will come after my clan and we won’t be forced to destroy the other clans. Do that – and we all walk away from here.” The White King went silent, before his expression darkened slightly. “Or… Choose to fight. Choose to ignore my request and pick a fight with the White Goblin clan and suffer the consequences.”

  Sallow remained silent.

  The other three kings also remained silent, staying behind Sallow – waiting for his response. The commanders of the White Goblin clan also remained silent, just waiting for what Sallow would say. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Sallow sighed.“...My apologies but…” His body twitched.

  Then, Sallow lunged at the White King, throwing a powerful punch which sent out a massive amount of force that reached all the way up to the cave roof and shattered the spot it hit on the roof, causing rubble and rock to fall down. Dust was kicked up.The commanders looked shocked, while the other three kings simply exhaled and got into more battle ready positions.As the dust cloud covering Sallow and the White King dissipated, what had happened became visible. The White King had caught Sallow's punch, tightly squeezing his fist, all the while struggling to keep it from breaking through.

  The White King had a disappointed expression across his face, while Sallow's eyes were burning. “...I’m not the one who makes that call.”

  “...I see.” The White King exhaled, before clenching his other hand into a fist. “Then I suppose there’s no need to hear you out.” Then, the White King pummeled Sallow in the stomach, sending him flying up into the air, before taking in a deep breath and roaring loudly — giving the signal to attack.

  Then, he leapt up after Sallow, with shining eyes.

  The commanders sighed. “Well— we better clean up these washed out ‘Kings’ as fast as we can—” April was cut off by Frawn, who suddenly appeared behind her, with a fully charged shot of his weapon. The Witch quickly flipped around, while Frawn grinned. “Bingo.”

  Blast.

  He fired the weapon. The charged shot launched at April at point black range, forcing her to deploy an almost instantaneous shield with her magic that allowed her to simply be pushed back by the powerful point black range shot, instead of being obliterated by it.

  She shed a cold sweat, looking at Frawn, who was smiling away, a dust storm covering him with only his red, shining gaze piercing through.

  “You two deal with the others, I’ll help April deal with the Red King.” Kalos said, smashing his staff onto the ground and creating a large magic circle below him, before beginning a chant.

  But before he got to finish it, Frawn appeared in the air above him, once again, with a fully charged shot. Kalos’ eyes widened. “How did he–!”

  “Too slow with that spell, Magus.” He said, firing the shot at Kalos, who was forced to cancel his spell and quickly form a barrier around him to block the strike.

  While the two magic casters were caught off guard by Frawn, who had used his inventions to get the jump on them, Baal unsheathed his blade and lunged himself at Greth, who leapt back and began dodging the incoming sword swings. Every sword swing made her shed a sweat. She hadn’t fully regained her former strength yet and in terms of strictly skills with a blade, Baal outmatched her greatly.

  “Come on, unsheathe your blade and fight back! Show what you can do!” Baal demanded, tracing his blade, with wind gathering around it before charging at Greth with immense speed, to try and pierce right through her, however Greth quickly unsheathed her greatsword and blocked the strike, redirecting it to the ground, while shedding a cold sweat. She held his sword down, peaking at him with a fierce, yet nervous glare. “...Just don’t go crying to your King when you lose.”

  She then pushed Baal back, before swinging her blade around and spinning it before pointing it at Baal. The White Goblin knight grinned under his helmet, before straightening out and warming up his shoulders a bit, taking a more battle ready stance and then launching at Greth once more.

  Bethra and Sable glared one another down.

  Silence stood between them both. Then, Bethra raised his fists up, before leaping at Sable and launching a punch covered in blue flames at her. Before the fist got even close to Sable, she suddenly vanished, shocking him – but before he could react, she pummeled him in his stomach, before grabbing him by his face and smashing him into the ground and then stomping onto him, causing a tremor through the ground as an immense amount of pressure was sent from Sable onto Bethra.

  The White Goblin let out a groan of pain, before weakly reaching over and grabbing Sable's foot before tossing her off of him and to the side. Sable quickly and easily regained her balance, standing back up and staring at Bethra. “Pfft– is that the best you can do? Are you so unskilled that I could sneak such an obvious attack against you?”

  “Shut… Shut your mouth!” Bethra shouted, before roaring and unleashing a large wave of energy before lunging at Sable, who rolled her eyes and easily caught his attack, countering in an instant as she threw him away before launching at him.“Let me demonstrate how a true martial arts expert does it.”

  With all the Kings locked in their confrontations against the White Goblin clans commanders, the troops of the White Goblin clan and the troops of the three united clans all charged at one another, signalling the start to this large scale battle between three united clans and the clan, who was renowned for its unrivaled strength.

  Not too far away from the main battle field, Sallow crashed into the ground before the White King landed, smashing the ground below him before standing up straight and glaring at Sallow, who rose up to his feet and glared back at him.

  The White King clicked his tongue.“Tch— you’re durable, I’ll give you that.” Then, he grinned, cracking his fists. “Good. Perhaps I can finally have a fight I can enjoy.” Sallow spat out a bit of blood, before taking a step back and without saying anything to the White King, launching at him.

  The two of them threw a punch at one another — which, when collided, sent out a blast of powerful wind force that decimated the area around them and sent tremors and quakes through the cave-like environment.

  The fight had truly begun.